New Mexico offers an abundance of outdoor recreational opportunities throughout the year, whether you enjoy skiing, water sports, hiking, cycling or just spending a day at the zoo.

Hiking and Mountaineering

The New Mexico Mountain Club (www.swcp.com/~nmmc) sponsors technical climbing activities along with hiking, skiing and snowshoeing. The Rio Grande Sierra Club (riogrande.sierraclub.org) organizes hikes and is active in protecting wilderness in New Mexico.

Also check out 100 Hikes in New Mexico by Craig Martin, The Hiker’s Guide to New Mexico by Laurence Parent, and the website Explore New Mexico (www.explorenewmexico.com).

Skiing

Depending on the season, skiing can be good at Sandia peak, better in Santa Fe and Taos. (The latter was chosen as one of the top 10 resorts in North America by Skiing Magazine). There are also several great “undiscovered” family-friendly ski resorts such as Sipapu, Ruidoso and Red River. See the website www.skinewmexico.com. The New Mexico Cross Country Ski Club (www.naturediscovery.org/nmccskiclub) is headquartered in Albuquerque and offers a large selection of organized day trips, multi-day car trips and Colorado hut trips. They also hold monthly meeting and offer ski instruction.

Rafting and Kayaking

The Adobe White Water Club is an Albuquerque-based organization dedicated to kayaking and canoeing and has a wealth of information about trips, permits and river levels on its website (www.adobeww.org).

Cycling and Mountain Biking

The New Mexico Touring Society (www.nmts.org) is a bicycling club of recreational riders that offers regularly scheduled rides and local maps. Albuquerque and the surrounding area also have many scenic and challenging mountain biking trails. The City of Albuquerque has a web page on cycling (www.cabq.gov/bike/) which includes a free, downloadable city bicycle map. Also look for Road Biking New Mexico by Nicole Blouin.